The Polar Express.

VAN ALLSBURG, Chris.

Item Number: 2111

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.

First edition, later printing. Oblong quarto, original cloth. Inscribed by the author in 1989. Fine in a fine price-clipped dust jacket.

The Polar Express "clearly established the illustrator-author as one of the premier creators of picture books in 20th-century children’s literature. The Polar Express, immediately taken to heart by children and adults alike, was a phenomenon in children’s publishing. It won the Caldecott Medal for illustration, appeared on the New York Times best seller list, sold more than a million copies in its first five years of publication and achieved the status of a contemporary classic Rich panel illustrations, in blues and purples, are accompanied by a narrative that achieves an exceptional sense of story Van Allsburg touches a universal chord— faith. The simple truth of the story is perceptively conveyed through a felicitous blend of pictures and narrative; the combination radiates with childlike wonder while reverberating with mysterious intensity" (Silvey, 660).